After the nostalgic magic that was “Days of Futures Past”, the bar was set unbelievably high for “Apocalypse”, and while the film doesn’t live up to all of the expectations cast, it does succeed in much more than critics are currently giving it credit for. The movie is the culmination of a series that is currently in its 8th film of the series, and over a 15 year period, we have come to find that we have grown with these superheroes. That is perhaps this film’s greatest accomplishment; the fact that it can resemble perfectly the looks and feels of a different decade in each of its films, as well as pack a lineup full of characters and super powers, but still succeed in keeping the script well away from convoluted levels.

Some of those performances who stole the show for me were Michael Fassbender as Magneto, James McAvoy as Charles Xavier, and the best of the best in Sophie Turner as Jean Grey. First with Fassbender, it is completely mind-blowing how Magneto hasn’t had his own film yet. When I watch one of these movies, It’s always in his character where I feel the most relatable too, and that’s something that is incredibly hard when comparing myself to someone of his stature. With “Apocalypse”, we see that sorrowful side of Magneto, and a man who has lost everything as a result of this blessing turned curse. Our hearts break with Fassbender, and even as a villain we relate to his sinister goals. McAvoy is once again the very heart of this franchise. It’s Charles who we spend the most screen time with, and even after three films with James at the helm, we still feel like we can’t get enough of his personable parental figure. Despite losing the ability to walk, James has such a psychology to his character that makes me feel like we are very much moving in fast-forward with the character, and his handicap is certainly never a limitation for the magic he bestows. Among the many new faces for the franchise, we are introduced to Sophie Turner as the powerful Jean Grey, and oh my God, where has she been all our lives? Sophie perfectly juggles Grey’s attitude with new recruits, while presenting a hearty side to the earth-shattering power that she possesses. This isn’t an easy thing to accomplish, as it would be simple for this character to come across as arrogant. Sophie instead made me fall in love with her portrayal by not hiding from that vulnerable side of Grey. With her current age, she hasn’t fully developed into the machine that she will someday be, but it’s through her eyes where we see the end for our world, and that burden makes it very easy to feel compassion for her character.

On the subject of action, this film keeps the train moving with excellent eye-appealing cinematography. I will get more into some of my problems with the sequences later, but the few that the film has certainly caught my eyes with a lot of eye-popping color. To a certain degree, the dark sky scenary combined with the neons and unorthodox skin tones from our heroes pays tribute effortlessly to the 1990’s animated TV series, accomplishing many breathtaking feats with the practical damage that they throw at the camera. There is a lot of CGI with the background landscapes, but most of the set pieces that were used as object weapons are very much practical, and I give it up to the stunt coordinator for really relating how powerful that battle between the indestructable force and the immovable object really is. My favorite scene in the film is a sequel to the Quicksilver scene that we received in “Days of Futures Past”, and boy is it a beauty for its attention-grabbing detail.

On the subject of problems that I have for the film, there are certainly a few things here that keeps this from being one of the better installments of the series. First of all, this film takes place around twenty years after “First Class”, and yet Singer doesn’t make any attempt to age our veteran characters in the slightest. With Xavier being a college student in “First Class”, this would make him around mid 40’s at this point, and he looks as fresh as a thirty year old daisy. Good genes i guess? Another problem that I had was within the first two acts of the movie. They aren’t bad as a whole, but man did they go overboard with the character build. With any superhero film, you will have storyline build with a few action sequences distributed for the big payoffs. With “Apocalypse”, I feel like even after nearly two-and-a-half hours of film, I’m still waiting for the big payoff to play opposite to the overbearing amount of character deposition that we got. After the opening scene, the film goes nearly a whole hour before our next action sequence, and there is so much along the way that could easily be left on the cutting room floor to keep this at two hours even. Another problem that I had came in some of the conflicts within the characters that was stretched out for a little too long. I don’t want to spoil anything, but a couple of the problems along the way had easy answers to combat them, and it sometimes left me feeling wiser than the very characters that I was watching. Finally, we have another second trailer that gives away two of the bigger surprises of the movie. I could tell that on one character cameo (You know who I’m talking about) that the trailer really took a lot of the steam out of that scene, and I can only imagine how loud my auditorium would’ve erupted if they just left that to surprise.

Overall, “X-Men: Apocalypse” isn’t quite the “Franchise killing film” that critics have labeled it. Does it have its problems? Absolutely. But is it among the weaker installments for the franchise? NO WAY. The film is the very definition of popcorn action flick that certainly puts you in a good mood for the Summer blockbusters ahead. In closing, I quote the the movie itself; “The third film in a franchise is always the worst”. That may be true, but “Apocalypse” is ear-splitting armageddon that will have you embracing this end of the world.

7/10